Lokpal: Babus now need to declare details of foreign accounts

New Delhi: All central government employees will now have to declare details of deposits in foreign bank accounts which includes those of their spouses and children, as per the new rules notified under the Lokpal Act.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has notified a new form for the employees to declare details of their assets and liabilities, along with that of their spouse and dependent children, which is mandatory under the Lokpal Act.

"Details of deposits in foreign bank(s) to be given separately," the notification said.

The new form has been issued after concerns were raised by some employees regarding putting details of their assets and liabilities in public domain. However, the government is still mulling whether such details should be made available to public, official sources said.

The employees will also have to inform separately in case of any investments of over Rs 2 lakh made in movable assets, insurance, bonds, shares and mutual funds in the new form.

As per the Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the Limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Second Amendment Rules, 2014, a public servant shall file the returns of his assets and liabilities, including that of his spouse and dependent family members, for the current fiscal by April 30, 2015.

As per rules, all Group A, B and C employees need to declare such details as on March 31 every year on or before July 31 of that year. For the current year, the last date for filing these returns was September 15, which was later extended to December-end and now till April next year.

The declarations under the Lokpal Act are in addition to similar ones filed by the employees under various services rules.

The DoPT has simplified the format for making such declarations which was issued in July and notified the new one on Friday.

The government has done away with the fields including name of bank or financial institutions in which employees or their family members accounts are operated. Now the employees need to mention amount (cash and bank balance) only.

In earlier form, employees were supposed to give details of motor vehicles, aircraft, yacht or ships. Whereas, in the new format, they need to give necessary details of motor vehicles only.

There are about 26,29,913 employees in Group A ,B and C, as per the government's latest data.